I marvel that you are
turning away so soon
from Him who called
you in the grace of Christ,
to a different
gospel, which is not another;
but there are some
who troubled you and want
to pervert the Gospel
of Christ.
Galatians 1: 6 -- 7
Yesterday's
blog gave a brief historical review to lay the foundation so we can come to
understand the culture that Paul faced and how he had to address various issues
due to their history. We now come to a
point of importance as to why Paul had to write to the collation churches and
the manner in which he did so that when we study this letter are we can see how
it applied then to the Galatian churches and how what was written as
application throughout Church history and into our present age. One of the things that is often overlooked
is the roll that the Jewish believers played in the early history of the
Christian Church. We often forget that
many of the Hebrews when captured and deported by the Babylonian kingdom did
not return to Israel and populated other areas of the Earth. And due to their religious views often
persecution arose in fighting between other religious groups and especially for
those who claimed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah that the Hebrews were
expecting. We also must remember at
this time Claudius was the Emperor of Rome (41 -- 54 A.D.) Nero was to take the
role of Emperor (54 -- 68 A.D.). And
they as rulers as other rumors have had to do prior and after them do battle
with various tribes of people from the north and even from the Persian lands who
wanted to capture Rome. In the middle
of all of this was rioting and wrong controversy between the Jews and the
Greeks. Are you getting the picture? Greeks also were scattered about and many of
them had landed in the city of Alexandria and this began to occur in a larger
manner in the reign of Gaius (Caligula) (37 -- 41 A.D.), an emperor who had
declared himself a god in this deification a declining created a serious crisis
in the East, among the Jews. In the year
38 A.D., members of the large Jewish community in Alexandria had become
involved in a large-scale, violent fighting against the great majority of the
inhabitants, who rejected the Jews claim to full citizenship of the city. This conflict was to bring about a serious
organized massacre not seen before in history whereby many pagan gangs forced
their way into the synagogues and set up stature of the Emperor. Philo let a Jewish mission to Rome (40
A.D.), to explain to the Emperor, that while their religious principles made it
impossible for them to sacrifice to him, they were always very glad to
sacrifice for him, which indeed they regularly did. Gaius thought this to be lunacy more than criminal then news
reached him of events that were taken in Judea itself among the Greek and
Jewish population of Jamnia. Whereby
the Jews Jews had destroyed all alters that were set up by the Greeks to honor
the Emperor. This act prompted Gaius to
decree that the country's places of worship be converted into shrines of the
Imperial cult. This led to a national
rebellion and mass martyrdom. Gaius,
due to a friend, finally was persuaded by his Julius Agrippa to cancel his
command, although shortly after this he was assassinated. Claudius became
emperor and now this problem in Alexandria was one in which he had to deal with
and had this to say: "as for the
question which party was responsible for the riots and feud (or rather, if the
truth be told, the war) with the Jews....
I was unwilling to make a strict inquiry, though guarding with in me a
store immutable indignation against which ever party renews the conflict; and I
tell you once and for all that it lets you put a stop to this ruinous and
obstinate enmity against each other, I shall be driven to show what a
benevolent princeps can be when turned to righteous indignation). Paul had to face these Judaizers who had
settled also into Galatian lands and while they were awesome and against the
Greeks they were also obstinate against this new set: Christians. It seems that there were in Galatia
semi-pagans, or semi-Jewish syncretists, perhaps of a Gnostic sort, but it is
as well likely that this letter had to do with the Judaizing controversy for
which the council in Jerusalem met (Acts 15).
We also must never think it impossible to over estimate how historically
crucial were the theological issues at stake.
We also seem to forget that the early Christians still often attended
the synagogues. These early Jewish
Christians in large measure continued in the Jewish mode of life would not only
was in attendance at the synagogue or temple, there was a question of offering
sacrifices, or observance of mosaic rituals and dietary doubloons, as well as
social aloofness from the Gentiles. All
of this forced the church when there a conversion of a Gentile was to face several
important questions. Should these
Gentile Christians be required to submit to circumcision in practice the Jewish
way of life as this was the case when a non-Jewish person, a proselyte who had
converted to Judaism. Now came a
problem: many of these Gentile Christians were unwilling to become holy Jewish,
begging the question to the church grant a second-class citizenship to those
Gentile or Greek Christians? Not
important question is not the important question: what makes a person a
Christian? This question needs to be
asked of ourselves! It is faith in
Jesus Christ solely and not just faith in Christ plus adherence to principles
and practices. This is what the Judaizers
were attempting to do and that is to apply the Jewish way of life, their principles
and practices to these converts to Christianity's who were not Jewish.
We have not
covered in some degree the history of the Galatians and the history of various
events that led up to this time when Paul had need to write to the Galatian
churches. We will find that there are
two theories and we must address that further our understanding and give us a
solid foundation so that we can understand what Paul wrote in how to apply what
he wrote in our lives.
O LORD, I will praise You;
though You
were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.
Behold, God
is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For Yah,
the LORD, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.
Isaiah 12:1 -- 2
Faith in God: the mark of a Christian
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